When discussing the children’s emotions, Ji-‐Yeon spoke about her daughter worrying about not speaking English fluently. This relates to changes in academic expectations when compared to her previous school in South Korea and is further discussed in Section 4.3, as well as other comments from both children and parents regarding this aspect of transition.
4.3 Theme 3: Changes in academic expectations and learning to adapt to a new school
A key factor that makes moving schools internationally distinct from moving schools within the same country is the potential to encounter a different education system, which some children and parents experienced during the transition. Five children spoke in detail about moving from an academic system that was more challenging. Aarush in year two had moved from India and
explained, ‘my old school is very, very different. And they didn’t give us playtime.
… They, they don’t let us do anything. They just say “Do studies then do hard tests”.’ Instead, as highlighted in the ‘New Pupil Orientation’, the school
community was encouraged to take a holistic approach in working towards the
‘development of the whole child’ (British School, 2014b:21). The ‘New Pupil Orientation’ was an obligatory meeting for all new parents to the school at the start of the academic year. It was used to explain the history and academic approach to the school, and build the expectation that parents and staff work
together to support the children in transition. While academic success was important and students achieved well in final exams at secondary level, the focus in the primary school was on ‘children and learning’ (British School, 2014b:21).
The message from the principal in the school prospectus echoes this, stating that
‘academic success is valued highly, but it is also our belief that the all-‐round development of each child is just as important’ (British School, 2014d:7). Like Aarush, Ji Hee in year two was also surprised by the variety of her school day here. She had moved from a very formal and structured education system in South Korea, to Vietnam. Ji Hee described, ‘when I went my Korean school and no play, no assembly, no PE. Just study. Math and Math’. Similarly, Ji Su in year six also moved from South Korea to Vietnam and described being very anxious about doing her Maths homework correctly in her old school because of the pressure to perform. Her drawing is shown in figure 9 where she describes herself as being ‘extremely stupid’ in her old school:
Figure 9: Ji Su’s drawing
In her interview, Ji Su described enjoying Music lessons, making new friends and having a shared interest in unicorns. While she considered herself as ‘stupid’
and ‘weird’ in her Korean school, here she had learned to embrace her
uniqueness in a different learning environment, learning that she was not stupid and instead had lots of friends.
In the same year six interview as Ji Su, Anaya also spoke in lots of detail about her previous experiences of school in Singapore, which she described as being
‘much harder’:
If I struggle with something, that's basically just—the syllabus because in Singapore, we had to have much harder syllabus and way more homework. So basically I'm finding it hard (not) to go,
"Why is there no homework?"
Ji Su agreed with this sentiment and the two girls had a shared understanding that the new school was fun and much easier compared to the schooling they had previously experienced, although this change seemed strange to them as
expressed by Anaya’s comments above. Anaya also found the social aspect of school different, and this was expressed in her drawing of the playgrounds, shown in figure 10:
Figure 10: Anaya’s drawing
Anaya’s picture of her old school shows a group of children playing basketball together. She is at the front, shooting the basketball into the hoop, while a friend
is cheering for her. Her caption below explains that this was a game she played with her friends everyday. In contrast, the picture of the new school shows a game of handball, which was new to her. In order to adapt and fit in, she has to practise everyday with her brother. Although she said that school was ‘fun’ here, her picture also suggests that she needed to work to fit in. She explained in the interview that ‘sports was the hardest thing for me because there's so many totally different sports at my school’.
Molly in year five also discussed adapting to a new learning environment and learning to adjust to different expectations. The school’s approach to education was based on an inquiry approach and expected children to be active
participants in this process, which they were not all used to doing. Molly
demonstrated this change through her drawing of the classrooms, shown here in figure 11:
Figure 11: Molly’s drawing
Molly’s picture shows a structured classroom environment in her previous school with rows of pupils behind desks, facing the board and the teacher. In her picture of the new school, the students appear to be working together at the front of the classroom with the teacher standing aside. This could indicate a change in academic approach; with the second picture providing an example of inquiry based collaborative learning. Molly had arrived in the school only
recently, in the third term and so her experiences of transition were very recent.
Molly explained that ‘in Korea, in my old school, my teacher was strict and everyone like sat in desks’. When explaining her second picture, she said,
‘you can sit on the carpet or you can sit on the chairs and you can choose’. She added that her last school was ‘stricter’ than this one. The school prospectus states that ‘we select energetic and innovative teachers with a proven track record of successfully motivating and inspiring the children to make the best of their abilities in a caring and happy environment’ (British School, 2014d:11).
Creating a strict learning environment was therefore definitely not the intention of this school, and instead children were encouraged to collaborate. Not all the children who experienced a different education system previously, however, commented that this was an issue. For example, Adele in year five described the terms being organised differently and the buildings looking different, but not any differences in terms of academic expectation or strictness. Likewise, in the year six interview, although Ji Su and Anaya discussed their previous schools in South Korea and Singapore being more difficult, Katie said ‘I don’t worry about class’
and did not comment on either school being more academically demanding.
However, Katie’s mother, Ji-‐Yeon, in her interview, did describe the new school being easier. Ji-‐Yeon and Katie had moved from South Korea and Ji-‐Yeon explained:
And new school life yes so she’s life is changing. So she feel happy than in Korea. Korean student is not, not happy! Korean student have to study very hard. Yes, than in Vietnam. Yes so my daughter is happy than in Korean school.
Ji-‐Yeon further explained that Katie was happier now because she had more friends and had more time to socialise because she was not expected to study as hard as she had in South Korea. Although Katie herself said that she was happy and had friends, she did not attribute this to a change in academic demands when speaking in the interview. The change in academic standards was not a concern for Ji-‐Yeon, and Sofia expressed a similar attitude when talking about her son, Michael. Although they had moved from a British school, this was in Hong Kong and Sofia agreed that the British international primary school in Vietnam was not as academically challenging:
We felt that the school in Hong Kong was more demanding academically and maybe even in terms of behaviours, manners, everything. So for him coming to this school maybe was a little bit easy. For on the one hand it was nice but maybe we lost a bit of challenge on the way but it’s not a big deal. He’s not that old so it doesn’t matter that much.
However, Michael did not describe the new school as being easier. He explained some practical differences such as the old school not having a swimming pool, but did not reflect on his academic experience. Like Sofia, Natalie also felt that this school was not as academically challenging as the school that her daughters had previously attended in England. She explained, ‘it does worry me when we go back to the UK that they’ll drop behind a little bit’. Natalie felt that academic standards were higher in the UK, despite this being a British school. However, she also added that while her children were ‘repeating’ things they had already done, they were also being ‘nurtured’, which was a highly positive aspect of their new school life. Both Sofia and Natalie concluded that overall they were not concerned, and this was mainly due to the young age of the children. Sofia’s husband concluded that they might consider sending their son to a boarding school in England when he is older, while Natalie’s plan is to move back to England with her daughters where they will continue their education.
Contrastingly, school was not easier for all of the children in the study, and four of the children made detailed comments about school being more difficult than
they had previously experienced. Se Jun (year four) and Candy (year five) both explained that since they spoke English as a second language, school was initially difficult for them. Se Jun recalled ‘everyone says I can’t speak English properly, so I was very upset’. Se Jun and Prisha (year three) also spoke about the
groupings for different ability children and the levels of English that they spoke affected this. For Prisha, this was ‘hard’ and for Se Jun, ‘it doesn’t make me feel very good’. Additional language support was provided to the children who were at the early stages of learning English. The school’s ‘Whole Language Policy’
states that ‘the English as an Additional Language programme aims to ensure that all students are able to access the school curriculum’ (British School, 2012:2;
Appendix 9, page 204). It explains that levels of support are dependent on individuals’ needs, which are regularly assessed. Support is offered both in class and through withdrawal lessons, which are ‘an integral part of the curriculum’
(British School, 2012:2; Appendix 9, page 204). In contrast to Se Jun and Prisha, three other younger children in the study discussed their English language support positively. For instance, Minh and Theo in year one both talked about having small group classes with the language teacher. Minh recalled feeling ‘not happy’ on his first day. When asked how he feels now, he replied he was happy because ‘I play with my friend and, and talking with my friend and go to Ms Emily’. For Minh, his English teacher was particularly important since she helped him to communicate, meaning that he was now better at communicating with others and playing with his friends. Similarly, Ji Hee in year two talked about feeling scared when she first arrived in school because she could not speak English, and she received help from the language teacher.
None of the parents discussed school being academically more difficult
compared to the previous school. Ji-‐Yeon explained that while learning English was a source of anxiety for her daughter, Katie, overall, she felt ‘happy’ at school because she did not have to work so hard. Paul explained that they had chosen a British education system to send their children to in order to minimise academic disruption when moving internationally:
I think that’s the beauty of being in the British system; we’ve chosen
our pathway, not just for ourselves, but for the children as well, simply because we could transfer between schools with a bit more ease and you know, we could move with the expectation that it would not be that far removed from where we’d left and we’ve certainly found that the whole way through.
With this aim of keeping school life similar with each move, Paul’s intention was that their children could ‘transfer’ between schools more easily. There was a sense that although the children’s lifestyles had changed, their schooling would enable some consistency. The school’s Admissions Policy states that it offers a
‘British style education’ and follows the English National Curriculum, alongside the International Primary Curriculum (British School, 2013:1; Appendix 9, page 198). Sofia and Michael also opted for a British education in all countries,
despite neither of them being British themselves:
In terms of schooling it was very simple because we decided to put our son also in Hong Kong in a British education system. So it was a fairly straightforward choice for us when we came here and when we had the interview with our son here in this room, all the terms were, you know, very familiar to him already. He already knew how things work and we have assembly and we have this and that so for him that so him that aspect was rather easy to change.
In addition to the academic approach to the school, part of the transition process also involved adapting to this particular school environment. While Sofia knew that her son understood the various terminology and what was expected of him academically, she was aware that she had to support him adapt in more subtle ways. Her son found navigating around the new school initially daunting and a source of stress. She described him feeling ‘lost’ both at home and at school. At school he got physically lost but also felt lost in the sense of not knowing how to fit in to established friendship networks. Understanding how the school worked, where he was meant to be and when was a source of anxiety. Michael’s father discussed this again further on in the interview and the impact it had made on his son. As he explained:
The other thing in the first weeks and months he wouldn’t want us just to drop him off in the morning. We, I had to come back into the schoolyard with him. In the beginning by the hand and take him to some teacher who was on duty and take him and say, ‘this is my son Michael. He’s new here. Can you please take care of him’.
And then he knew oh, this person is new. He wouldn’t stick to the teacher.
He just wanted to know, you know, who’s a reference point and who can I ask for help. I think it is because on that one day he got lost and he didn’t know who to, who to ask for help.
He explained that this was only needed during the initial weeks when he first arrived, while Michael got used to the school, however this source of support was essential to help him feel at ease at the start of the school day. In addition to feeling physically lost, Sofia explained ‘we are kind of lost as well, as parents’.
They were initially confused, and still were to some extent, about the
expectations of the school on both the child and the parents. For instance, they remarked that it took some time before they realised that many of the other parents hired tutors for their children, but that this was not a system they were accustomed to. They were unsure whether they should employ a tutor as well in order to be more like the other families. As Sofia explained, certain aspects of school life were ‘a challenge for us as parents’. On a practical level as well, they experienced early difficulties in understanding the school routines and
expectations. Sofia recalled:
Some processes were not straightforward. For example, I didn’t know that the days that Michael has PE he needed to pack his uniform for the rest of the day and he did not do it for, I don’t know, two or three weeks until once he told me ‘oh why you didn’t pack?
From this perspective therefore, learning to adapt to a new school also meant learning the different routines and expectations of the new school. The policy documents provide a context to the curriculum and explain the provision offered to pupils, while the ‘New Pupil Orientation’ (British School, 2014b) and ‘Settling In Workshop’ (British School, 2014) explain certain aspects of school life and the emotional support offered by the school to both parents and children. However, Sofia and Michael’s experience highlights the many subtle expectations and
practices about individual school culture that are undocumented and learnt through experience. Although they were given a timetable, they did not
understand the nuances of it, such as bringing in a school uniform to change into after PE. Similarly, while the school did not explicitly ask parents to hire tutors, as Sofia commented, many parents did do this and she began to wonder whether this was an expectation.
Ji-‐Yeon also explained that her daughter, Katie found getting to know the
routines of the school a source of worry. Like Michael, she relied on other people to help her to understand. However, because she did not speak English, Ji-‐Yeon explained that ‘usually Korean friends told my daughter how to do in school’. Ji-‐
Yeon acknowledged that her daughter needed to adapt, not only academically to a new school system, but also to the uniqueness of this particular environment, and that she needed the support of the Korean network at school to make this possible.
Meanwhile Steven had to support his son, Jason, in finding different interests. To him it was a ‘disappointment’ that the school did not offer piano lessons, which
‘took music off the agenda’. This is despite the school prospectus stating that
‘music plays a powerful part’ in the school (British School, 2014d:3). Instead, Steven noticed that football was a more popular option and so enrolled his son in this; both as a way to fit in to the new school and also for help him form
friendships. He also explained that he had chosen this particular school because it ‘felt more strict and disciplinarian’ than the other available schools and that he felt his son needed this level of discipline and also that this ‘strict’ approach would be more beneficial to his son making progress in Maths and English. This is in contrast to the way in which the school describes itself in the ‘New Pupil Orientation’, which states that this is a ‘forward thinking’ and ‘happy’ school (British School, 2014b:21). The school prospectus adds to this, describing the school as being a ‘caring community’ (British School, 2014d:5). Steven’s description could, however link to the principal’s statement in the prospectus
friendships. He also explained that he had chosen this particular school because it ‘felt more strict and disciplinarian’ than the other available schools and that he felt his son needed this level of discipline and also that this ‘strict’ approach would be more beneficial to his son making progress in Maths and English. This is in contrast to the way in which the school describes itself in the ‘New Pupil Orientation’, which states that this is a ‘forward thinking’ and ‘happy’ school (British School, 2014b:21). The school prospectus adds to this, describing the school as being a ‘caring community’ (British School, 2014d:5). Steven’s description could, however link to the principal’s statement in the prospectus